Myanmar has bulldozed at least 55 villages left by Rohingya Muslim inhabitants. The operation that started last year has raised deep concern among human rights advocates.

This image shows that predominantly Rohingya village and hamlets have been completely leveled by authorities in recent weeks, far more than previously reported. This combination of two satellite images provided by Digital Globe, December 20, 2017, left; and February 13, 2018.
(AP)

Myanmar has bulldozed at least 55
villages that were emptied of their Rohingya Muslim inhabitants
during violence that began last year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on
Friday, citing a review of new satellite imagery.

The group said the demolitions in the northern part of
Rakhine State could have destroyed evidence of atrocities by
troops who swept through villages after Rohingya insurgents
attacked 30 police posts and an army base on August 25.

This combination of two satellite images provided by Digital Globe, December 20, 2017, left; and February 13, 2018, right; displaying the village of Zone Kar Yar, about 24 kilometers (15 miles) southeast of Maungdaw, Rakhine state,
(AP)

The military response to the August attacks pushed 688,000
people across the border into Bangladesh, many of them
recounting killings, rape and arson by Myanmar soldiers and
police.

The findings by the New York-based rights group were
published after Myanmar struck a deal on aid to the region with
the United Nations (UN) and Japan, marking a shift in strained
relations between government and the UN.

The UN and the United States have called the
crackdown on the Rohingya ethnic cleansing, but the government
of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has blocked UN
investigators and other independent monitors from the conflict
zone.

This December 2, 2017, satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe, shows the village of Thit Tone Nar Gwa Son, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Maungdaw, Rakhine state, Myanmar. Satellite images of Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state, released to The Associated Press by Colorado-based Digital Globe on Friday, February 23, 2018.
(AP)

Myanmar says its forces have been engaged in a legitimate
campaign against Muslim "terrorists."

HRW said a total of 362 villages had been
partially or completely destroyed since August. Since late last
year, some of those villages – and at least two previously
intact settlements – had been flattened, it said.

“Many of these villages were scenes of atrocities against
Rohingya and should be preserved so that the experts appointed
by the UN to document these abuses can properly evaluate the
evidence to identify those responsible,” said Brad Adams, HRW Asia director.

“Bulldozing these areas threatens to erase both the memory
and the legal claims of the Rohingya who lived there.”

HRW said a series of images taken from
satellites showed that two villages in the area called Myin Hlut
were not damaged by fire and were "likely inhabitable" before
they were "destroyed and smoothed over by heavy machinery"
between January 9 and February 13.

Satellite image provided by Digital Globe, shows the village of Myar Zin, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Maungdaw, Rakhine state, Myanmar. Satellite images of Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine state, released to The Associated Press by Colorado-based DigitalGlobe on Friday, February 23, 2018,
(AP)

Government spokesman Zaw Htay was not immediately available
for comment.

Myanmar officials have said the government was preparing
areas to receive refugees who would return under a repatriation
agreement signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh in November.

Myanmar state media reported in January that eight
excavators and four bulldozers were working in the area.

Myanmar has established two reception centres and a camp for
returnees, but it says they are temporary and people will be
able to return to their original places or nearby.

Win Myat Aye, the minister charged by Suu Kyi with leading
rehabilitation efforts in Rakhine, said in September that land
damaged by fire legally becomes "government-managed land."

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar daily reported that Myanmar, Japan and seven UN agencies had struck a deal on help for Rakhine State worth $20 million.

The UN suspended its activities in northern
Rakhine and evacuated non-critical staff after the government
suggested it had supported Rohingya insurgents last year.

Neither the state-run newspaper nor the UN specified what proportion of projects would be implemented in
the northern part of the state where the Red Cross has been
providing limited assistance.

"The UN agencies have to plan projects and will co-ordinate
with the government for implementing their plans," Win Myat Aye
told Reuters on Friday.

Knut Ostby, the interim UN coordinator for Myanmar, said
in a release the immediate concern was to provide humanitarian
aid to people in need, "irrespective of their religion,
ethnicity, gender or citizenship status."

"More than 40 percent of people in Rakhine live in poverty
and we have to reach them with development assistance in order
to set the state on the path to peace and inclusive growth," he
said.

UN projects aim to reach half a million beneficiaries over
the next year, the United Nations said in a statement, though
adding that humanitarian access remained restricted.

The UN refugee agency has also been excluded from a
Rohingya refugee repatriation process organised by Bangladesh
and Myanmar.

The UN said it would keep calling for "voluntary, safe, sustainable and dignified return of refugees to places of origin – and UNHCR’s involvement in the repatriation process."